Malevich

I've long been a fan of the brilliant Russian painter Kazimir Malevich. He along with Paul Cezanne are my two favorite painters, so when I ran across this book in my local Salvation Army store, I was delighted. Though only 64 pages long, some of his finest work is shown here, including two my two favorite paintings of his, "Woman in a Yellow Hat" and "Unemployed Girl". The book opens with a short two paged chapter called "Malevich and the Russian Avant-Garde" the goes into another two page chapter on Kazimir Malevich where you'll find out who he was, where he painted and what that and why who he was is important. Like me, Malevich admired Cezanne, but unlike me, he was hugely talented, was able to see Cezanne's work and take it to a different level. He believed Cezanne's attempt "to create a new order independent of the natural one in painting was the course that modern artists should follow" as he shifted to a cubist style. He considered himself a Cubo-Futurist and he was a member of the Russian Futurist group. Though I admire all of his work, it's the work he did before he coined the idea of Suprematism that I like the best, the French Post-Impressionist looking stuff. Also, I didn't know he did propaganda posters during WW I supporting the Russian war effort. I've never seen them, but I'm going to go to Google after I post this review and see if I can find some. If you've ever wandered into an art gallery and enjoyed yourself, then you'll enjoy this book and you just might learn a little something, I know I did. Reviewed by Stephanie Sane